


Arisato Minato is Dating a High Schooler

by neurotrophicfactors



Series: In Another Life [1]
Category: Persona 3, Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Established Relationship, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 09:11:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12339735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neurotrophicfactors/pseuds/neurotrophicfactors
Summary: After two weeks of dating and months of dancing around each other, Minato decides that it's finally time for him to introduce his boyfriend to his best friend and roommate.





	Arisato Minato is Dating a High Schooler

**Author's Note:**

> The title is absolutely a Scott Pilgrim vs the World parody. I'm Canadian; it had to happen eventually. This is an AU in which the events of P3 and P4 essentially happened, but minus the supernatural elements and now Souji lives in Iwatodai. I just finished writing this and it hasn't been beta'd, so I may make minor edits in the next few days.

It feels strangely nostalgic to wait outside the gates of Gekkoukan High School as students walk by, clutching their school bags and once in a while throwing him curious glances, despite the fact that Minato never waited at the gates like this even when he was still a student. It’s a beautiful day: the temperature is mild and the sun is shining, catching on the leaves of the trees on either side of the walkway as they change hue and setting them aflame. Minato’s hand curls around his phone in his jacket pocket and he narrowly resists the urge to check for new messages he knows he won’t find. Next to him, Junpei leans against the gate pillar with a lazy yawn.

“You know, doesn’t it feel weird to be dating a high schooler?” he asks, adjusting his signature baseball cap with his thumb and forefinger.

Minato peers around the pillar to watch the front entrance of the school, scanning the students that trickle steadily from the doorway for a head of silver hair. No dice. “He asked _me_ out.”

“Yeah, but you said ‘yes.’”

“He’s more mature than _you_.”

Junpei shoves him.

“Besides, he turns eighteen in January,” Minato says, and even to him it sounds like an excuse. “I wouldn’t have said ‘yes’ if he was any younger. It’s not like I’m planning on doing anything weird to him.”

“Not _yet_ , anyway.” Junpei gives him a lecherous grin and nudges him with an elbow playfully. Minato swats him in the arm. “And besides, two months after that you turn twenty. Say goodbye to the teenage dream and hello to adulthood!”

Minato snorts. As if there was anything idyllic about his adolescence. Or Junpei’s, for that matter. The final few months of their high school careers were fraught with afternoons spent apartment hunting, both of them desperate to find alternative living arrangements once their time in the dorms came to an end. It was an unspoken understanding that neither of them would be drinking for their twentieth birthdays. They might have a cup of sake each at most, but there would never be any alcohol in their shared apartment.

Junpei brings one hand up to the cross that rests just beneath his collarbone, rubbing it absently with his thumb, and turns to watch Minato, his expression sobering. “So are you serious about him?”

“It’s been two weeks.”

“But would you go to France for him?” The teasing tone is back.

Minato rolls his eyes and barely restrains himself from swatting him again. “It wasn’t like that. Shut up.”

In their second year, Minato became close friends with a French exchange student named Andre Laurent Jean Geraux, or “Bebe,” as his classmates called him. He had pretty blue eyes and a wide smile that came as easily as Minato’s didn’t, and with dextrous fingers and boundless enthusiasm, he taught Minato how to sew. Bebe’s time in Japan was cut short after the death of his aunt, but they kept in touch after he left and as the end of Minato’s final semester at Gekkoukan approached, Bebe encouraged him to apply to university in France, offering to host for him in the meantime. It’s true that Minato liked him and they tried dating for a short period while he was there, but it wasn’t his motivation for attending or the reason he returned to Japan afterward. They’re still good friends and he doesn’t regret it, but Minato didn’t want to spend his entire inheritance to go to school in a different country.

Junpei bumps their shoulders together lightly. “You never answered my question.”

Minato chews his lip without looking at him. Still no silver among the students exiting the school. Minato’s hand tightens unthinkingly around the hard plastic of his phone. “I like him.”

“See? Now was that so hard?”

Before Minato can unleash a barbed comment, he catches a flash of silver in the corner of his eye. A towering figure makes his way down the front steps of the school with hair the colour of steel, like a gleaming helm, and eyes to match. They find Minato’s after a momentary search and a smile spreads across his closed mouth, small, but filled with enough warmth to make Minato’s heart stutter. He looks good in his uniform—forgoing the tie and his jacket unbuttoned as well as the top two buttons of his dress shirt, revealing a tantalizing V of skin at the dip of his collarbone. Perhaps one day he will let Minato press his lips there.

He bounds over to them on his long legs and Junpei’s eyes widen as the teenager draws closer and he realizes that his kouhai is several centimeters taller than him. And then that small, warm smile is right in front of Minato and he feels his own lips curve upward in response, his chest filling with butterflies.

“Minato-senpai!” says the student, beaming.

Minato scowls half-heartedly as heat rises to the surface of his skin. “I told you to stop calling me that.”

“But you make such a cute face!” He gently pinches Minato’s cheek and he slaps the hand away lackadaisically.

Junpei is gaping at them and Minato leaps at the opportunity to change the subject. “Junpei, this is Seta Souji, my boyfriend.” Now Souji is the one blushing.

Junpei blinks, making a quick recovery, and says, “Iori Junpei, at your service. Best friend and roommate extraordinaire!” He grins and tips the brim of his cap.

Souji bows politely and says, “It’s nice to meet you, Iori-senpai. Minato has told me plenty about you.”

“All good things, I'm sure!” He winks.

“Ehhh…” Minato holds his hand out, palm down, and wobbles it from side to side dubiously. Junpei shoves him by the shoulder while Souji watches on with amusement. “So when does Chidori get out of class?”

“Not until four if her sketching block runs for the full length,” Junpei tells him, “but she’ll text me if it ends early. I figure we can just hang out at the arcade until then.”

“Cool.” Minato nods and Junpei turns to lead the way down the sidewalk. Minato takes one step to follow him before he realizes that Souji isn’t next to him. He looks over his shoulder to see Souji watching Junpei with an almost dazed expression. “Souji?”

Souji shakes his head and meets his eyes, quicksilver seeping into raincloud blue. “Sorry. He just reminded me of someone I know.”

Minato smirks, thinking back to a few of Souji’s choice stories from the town he used to live in. “I think I can make a pretty good guess at who. You’re good though? This isn’t too soon?”

Souji’s smile turns fond and he reaches for Minato’s hand to lace their fingers together. “I’m good. If anything, this is long overdue.”

Minato feels a twinge of guilt, like a thorn pressed against the pad of his thumb. Though their romantic relationship is new, it’s something that’s been building between them for months. At first it was just Souji coming to the café where Minato works as a customer, then he began to invite Minato to sit with him during his breaks, and then they started hanging out when Minato wasn’t working. Little by little, Souji chipped away at Minato’s defenses until he could work his way beneath his skin and coil himself around the cold lump of his heart, coaxing it to life. Most of the time they went out, but Souji rarely invited him back to his parents’ apartment for the same reason that Minato didn’t invite him to the flat that he shared with Junpei: because there would be questions, and if their answers were not perfectly satisfactory, there would be assumptions. Junpei would make jokes and Souji’s parents would _disapprove_ , and so Minato never set foot in Souji’s apartment when his parents were home and Souji has never seen Minato’s. Like the alcohol that will never find its way into the cupboards of the Iori-Arisato household, it was something that was mutually accepted without any preceding conversation.

But now? Minato looks up at Souji and sees this teenager looking down at him, all silver and gold and full of _affection_ , and, _shit_ , Minato never really stood a chance against him, did he?

He squeezes Souji’s hand and says, “I’m not ashamed of you.”

“I know,” Souji replies, but the relief that filters into his gaze suggests otherwise.

Minato chews his lower lip and makes a silent vow to himself to be better—to be someone who deserves this boy in front of him and doesn’t make him feel like a dirty little secret.

“Hey, are you lovebirds coming or what?” Junpei waves at them from several meters away, drawing the attention of a few passersby. _Oh yeah_ , Minato thinks.

He turns back to Souji. “You ready?”

Souji grins. “Yeah.”

Minato tugs him along by the hand to catch up with Junpei, who is now turning to Souji and saying, “Oh, and by the way, as Minato’s best friend, it is my duty to give you a list of ten reasons why you should run away.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Minato snaps.

Souji laughs softly, silver eyes glinting with mischievous delight. “I’d like to hear them.”

His thumb strokes the back of Minato’s hand tenderly.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to come harass me on my blog! My url is the same as my username!


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